The system for the submission of Employment Equity reports is now open

3 November 2022

The Department of Employment and Labour reporting period for Employment Equity has officially started on the 1^st of September 2022, and designated employers have until the 15^th of January 2023 to submit.

Employers are considered designated if they employ more than 50 employees or exceed the annual industry turnover threshold below.

Regarding the Employment Equity Act, a designated employer must implement the stipulated requirements in sections 15 to 21 to be found compliant when a departmental inspector conducts an audit.

These sections set out a systematic approach to implementing Employment Equity in the workplace in the following manner:

1. Appoint a senior manager to take responsibility for the Employment Equity process.
2. Establish an Employment Equity committee that needs to meet at least every quarter; meetings can also be held monthly, should there be a need. 
3. Conduct an analysis and identify barriers in the workplace, policies and procedures that are potentially counterproductive towards achieving equity. 
4. Develop and assign affirmative action measures for each of the barriers identified. 
5. Assign timelines to each affirmative action measure. 
6. Identify goals and targets for a 1-to-5-year period. These goals need to be achievable, and designated employers need to take into account the following when setting out goals and targets:
   a. Annual staff turnover. 
   b. Projected yearly growth of employee profile.
   c. Structure of employee profile, smaller employer, tends to have a flat employee structure or hierarchy, for such an employer, annual goals and targets are best suited.
7. Submit employment equity data to the Department of Employment and Labour.
   

The duty to report is set out in Section 21 of the Act, which makes this the last compliance step for a designated employer. Even though a designated employer has complied with the duty to report but has yet to have any of the actions mentioned implemented before submitting their reports to the DOL, the designated employer would not satisfy the requirements and can face hefty fines for non-compliance. 

Contact us at 0861 737 263 should you have any queries regarding Employment Equity and Compliance.